A Contribution to Sida's Poverty Study

Poverty and the Environment

July 1995

Sida SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

COOPERATION AGENCY

Department for Natural Resources and the Environment

Poverty and the environment

Forevvord

Both the environmental and poverty problems at present threatening the vvorld are many-faceted in their separate forms. VVhen they are to be discussed together, simplifications become unavoidable, especially vvhen using an aggregated level. Local and individual perspectives must alvvays be considered vvhen the connection betvveen poverty and environmental degradation is analysed in practice.

It is not less important to attempt to summarise the cause and effect relationship vvhich exists betvveen these tvvo phenomena, and the problems associated vvith it, as there is a tendency to underestimate the difficulties created by environmental degradation for the long term struggle against poverty. This has lead to the retained belief in the myth diat economic grovvtli, irrespective of its basis, vvill simultaneously solve both environmental and poverty-related problems. This is a dangerous assumption and - as so often in the past - the poorest people in the vvorld vvill pay an unreasonably high price if this oversimplified and obsolete vievv continues to prevail.

The follovving are some summarised thoughts on the particularly complex area of environment and poverty, vievvs vvhich are partially based on a study carried out by SIDA as preparauon for UNCED. Sture Persson, Ministry of the Environment has participated in the vvork on this summary vvhich has been vvritten as a contribution to SIDA's overall study on die struggle against poverty in Swedish development assistance.

Mats Segnestani Senior Policy Adviser on the Environment

POVERTY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The nevvest threats to our common Security are primarily comiected to the problems of poverty, continued rapid population grovvth, the scarcity of certain natural resources and the degradation of the natural environment.

Humankind is faced vvith a situation in vvhich the environment and its life sustaining Systems are being increasingly exposed to strong negative effects. There is a risk that poverty vvill be made permanent in increasingly greater areas vvhile the gap betvveen rich and poor vvidens, vvhich contributes to the degradation of natural resources and the environment.

In virtually ali countries, poorer groups are most seriously affected by environmental degradation - by both local and global environmental changes. Hovvever, poverty is also a root cause of environmental destruction.

ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION INCREASES POVERTY

Human beings' basic needs

In many of the poorer areas, the limit concerning utilisation of vvater for agricultural production etc is rapidly being approached. Access to arable land is decreasing. Approximately 60% of ali rural households in developing countries are considered to have too littie arable, fertile land to support themselves at a reasonable level, approximately 13% of households have no land at ali.

Approximately 1,400 million hectares of the global total of 1,800 million hectares of grazing and dry forests are exposed to environmental degradation. About 17 million hectares, or 1%, of tropical räin forests disappear annually vvhich causes extreme difficulties for the local poor.

Betvveen one and tvvo thousand million people, of vvhich a large proportion are poor, obtain their primary protein from coastal vvaters. Hovvever coastal marine environments, and vvith them marine production, are severely threatened in many parts of the vvorld. The poorest groups are generally those vvho are most dependent on a functioning marine environment, as fish and other marine organisms are often their only affordable high quality protein source.

In areas vvhere poverty remains or even increases in spite of generally satisfactory economic development (India, several Lätin American countries etc), stresses on the ecological system are increasing.

Environmental degradation is expressed in decreased yield from soil and vvater resources. Erosion, deforestation, overgrazing, marine environmental degradation, loss of bio-diversity, pollution of soil, vvater, air etc are ali examples of problems vvhich limit the production potential of the natural resources on vvhich poorer groups are often directly dependent. VVomen and children from poorer groups are often affected most negatively. VVomen produce 75% of ali foodstuffs in Africa and contribute 90% of the necessary time for food preparation. VVhen fertility declines due to soil erosion or the availability of fuel vvood and other forest products decreases as a result of deforestation, vvomen are the primary victims, and through them, children.

At present there are many poor people dependent on bio-mass for energy supply, even in urban areas. The design of energy svstems in the future, based on environmental requirements, vvill be decisive for many poorer groups.

Poverty often means lack of productive land. Lack of arable land caused by population grovvth and the uneven distribution of ovvnersliip leads to an expansion of the cultivation of marginal, ecologically sensitive areas of developing countries. The landless poor are forced to cultivate tliese areas due to lack of any other means of support.

Many of the poorest people in the vvorld live in areas vvhere lack of vvater is a serious problem. The situation - especially for the poor, vvho already have the most problems vvith vvater supply - is deteriorating as access to clean vvater decreases as a result of pollution and overconsumption in relationship to supply.

Loss of bio-diversitv is a global problem vvhich also has bearing on the life of poor people, a problem vvhich has not yet been studied sufficientiy. This problem consists of both loss of organisms vvliich provide humaus vvith an ecological service - eg as decomposition agent of organic material in arable soil or as the basis of a nutrition chain in a coastal environment - and in the loss of species vvhich are used directly by humans, including genetically adapted varieties vvhich have developed to suit local cultivation conditions. For many poverty stricken people in developing countries, vvild plant and animal species play an important, sometimes decisive, role. People are directly threatened by the extinction of species because they are dependent on many of nature's products for tiieir support and vvelfare. In Ghana, for example, 75% of the population are dependent on game, fish, insects, snails etc as their primary source of protein. In Nigeria, game forms 20% of the protein intake of rural populations. People in India use almost 1,000 vvild species as medicinal herbs.

Urban environment and pollution

Urbanisation is accelerating in developing countries and vvill continue at an equally rapid pace. By 2015, on average 59% of the population of developing countries vvill live in tovvns (3.5-3.9 thousand million people). A large and increasing proportion of developing country urban dvvellers vvill belong to the poor, or poorest, groups in society. Groups dominated by vvomen and children. These groups often live in unhealthy surroundings in the grovving slum areas - vvithout access to clean vvater and sufficient sanitary facilities, poor housing conditions, close to vvaste dumps and in severely polluted atmospheres. The infant mortality rate is often 2-5 times higher in slum areas than in other areas of the cities. An increasing number of poor people are therefore novv experiencing a series of immediate environmental problems, vvhich contribute to the exacerbation of tiieir poverty, not least as poor healtli leads to decreased capacity for physical vvork.

Polluted vvater also leads to very serious healtli problems, especially for the poorest groups. According to WHO calculations, betvveen 20 and 25 million people per year die from illnesses related to poor quality drinking vvater and UNICEF estimate that 5 million children die annually as a result of diarrhoea illnesses connected to unhygienic environments and polluted vvater. These health problems are caused by environmental pollution and can only be solved by improved vvater quality and more hygienic surroundings.

In addition to the above, another urban related environmental problem tlireatens, namely the costs associated vvith attempts to seal material biocycles. Nutritional elements from agriculture etc must be returned to the soil vvhen the agricultural products have been consumed in the urban areas. At present, for example, carbon atoms disappear out to sea or up into the atmosphere instead of functioning as building blocks for future production of foodstuffs. This environmental problem vvill, in the long run, affect the agricultural population in the rural areas, especially those vvho cannot afford fertiliser.

Industrial pollution is a grovving problem in developing countries. Many industries utilise obsolete teclinology vvhich forms a serious threat to the environment. Industrial emissions are already extensive in certain places. The poor are affected both directly and indirectly. They are exposed to health risks because they often live close to the source of the emissions. They are also affected indirectly as pollutants decrease the productivity of fishing and agriculture. The often unregulated utilisation of Chemical pesticides in agriculture leads to toxic risks for both human beings and the environment. In Lätin America especially, landless peasants have been exposed to Chemicals vvithout proper protection and knovvledge as to their effects and dangers.

Population grovvth and the burden of support

Poverty often means high birthrates. Poorer groups in developing countries tend to_produce more children than in the better-off industrialised countries. The factors causing this phenomenon -including economic factors - vary enormously. In many places poverty contributes to the high level of population grovvth, vvhich in turn contributes to increased pressure on natural resources -often vvith increased environmental degradation and increased poverty as a result.

It is important to emphasise that rapid population grovvth is one of the most important factors influencing environmental degradation in developing countries. During the 90s alone, almost one thousand million people vvill be added to the population of the vvorld, and almost ali of this increase is to be found in developing countries.

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In many areas vvhere pressure of population density is already high in relation to the environment's carrying capacity, grovvth is occurring so rapidly that the adaptation of farming methods cannot keep pace. The consequences are that pressure on the natural resource base, like poverty, increases. The incredibly lengthy lead time needed to put the brakes on population grovvth means that, even in a best case scenario vvith rapidly decreasing family size, far more intensive measures must be applied right novv if it is to be possible to both save the environment and decrease poverty in developing countries.

Continued environmental degradation inevitably leads to the shrinking of the natural resource base - in a vvorld that has to support an additional 100 million or so people every year vvith food and vvater, fuel and housing. On top of this, demands on resources caused by striving for increases in vvelfare must be placed.

Some of the environmental problems observable in developing countries today are similar to that of the industrial vvorld. Hovvever, the increasing population pressure and the varying ecological preconditions in developing countries, coupled vvith a more inequitable distribution of resources, results in these problems being, in many cases, far more serious in developing countries and for the poorer groups vvhich form the majority of the population.

Security, vulnerability and ecological refugees

Environmental degradation and access to natural resources vvill, in the future, increasingly underlay the development of national and international conflicts. The need for natural resources from outside the country forces the nations of the vvorld to co-operate vvith each other, either at a benevolent or a destructive level. Lack of natural resources and exhaustion of the environment have already caused serious political and social unrest, national and international conflicts and acts of vvar in many countries of the vvorld. The poorest are often most negatively affected and adverse environmental effects can occur on a secondary level as people are forced to flee from the fighting. Investment in sustainable utilisation of resources therefore becomes an important tool for increasing national and international security and can contribute to the avoidance of devastating conflicts.

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Environmental degradation also exposes the poorest groups to increased risk from natural disasters and famine. The Ethiopian famine of the 80s vvas initiated by vvide-scale environmental degradation. Floods have partially been caused by upstream deforestation. The concept ecological refugee has been created during the last fevv years. Millions of people - one estimate states diat at present this number may be upvvards of 25 million, mainly in Africa but also in other regions - have left their homes because the natural resources available there can no longer support them.

THE MOST SERIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM IN THE VVORLD?

It is surprising hovv little has been vvritten on poverty and the environment in spite of the fact that poverty has been described as "the most serious environmental problem in the vvorld."

Indira Gandhi stated as early as 1972 at UN's environmental conference in Stockholm, that poverty polluted and that the struggle against poverty vvas also the struggle for a better environment. Othervvise discussions on the connection betvveen poverty and the environment have only come to the forefront during the last fevv years.

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission established that poverty vvas one of the most important causes of environmental degradation. Hovvever the report only included a fairly superficial discussion on environmental degradation as a causal effect of increased poverty. As late as 1990, The World Bank vvrote, "The links betvveen environmental degradation and poverty are as yet poorly understood."

SIDA's analysis from 1991 published in the booklet "The Environment and Poverty - Guidelines for SIDA's Development Assistance" (Olsson and Segnestam) illustrated these connections in the context of SIDA's development assistance. At the request of Maurice Strong, General Secretary of UNCED, SIDA published a Special version of this booklet for an international audience -"Poverty, Environment and Development". This vvas put at the disposal of the vvorld community as a part of the preparation process for the UNCED.

UNCED vvas primarily concerned vvith the connections betvveen development and environment and therefore also vvith the eradication of poverty as a precondition for sustainable development. The resulting action pian, Agenda 21 includes a special chapter on the fight against poverty, but even here the analysis is extremely traditional and measures recommended not obviously related to environmental conservation.

During the last fevv years some publications have discussed this subject and a brief bibliography is listed belovv.

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COMPLEXITY UNDERESTIMATED

One basic point of departure is that there are no simple. general connections betvveen environmental degradation and poverty. Connections are extremely complex and are inescapably influenced by the type of environmental problem under discussion, vvhich groups of poor are affected, hovv poverty is defined etc. Increased poverty is often a result of the environmental destruction undervvay in developing countries and sometimes it is also its cause.

At societal level - global, national or local - poverty can be expressed in the form of declining natural resource capital and environmental degradation can result in costs in order to counteract negative environmental effects.

Certain types of environmental problems are more commonly caused by poverty - soil erosion, overgrazing, exhaustion of vegetation, deforestation (and vvith it loss of bio-diversity), coastal and marine environmental degradation and certain immediate environment problems. One characteristic in connection vvith poverty and this type of environmental degradation is often that it initiates a vicious ci rele or rather dovvnvvard spiral. Overexploitation leads to increased poverty and consequendy an increased tendency to overexploitation. The eradication of poverty is tiierefore, in many cases, a pre-condition of the elimination of these types of environmental degradation.

Connections betvveen poverty and environmental degradation are both direct and indirect. Poverty contributes directiy to environmental degradation through the fact that the poor simply do not possess, or cannot give up, the resources necessary to protect the environment. Poverty contributes indirecdy to environmental degradation via the fact that it tends to be connected to a range of other problems, such as limited knovvledge of new preconditions of supply, lack of land, high birthrate and sometimes a tendency to short-term, survival only thought processes.

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It therefore must not be permitted to simplify the connection betvveen environmental degradation and poverty in a misleading manner - poverty is not alvvays connected to environmental degradation. There are many examples of extremely poor people, in traditionally expressed terms, vvho do not destroy the environment. Many poor people actually demonstrate a singular avvareness and consideration for the environment in vvhich they live. Furthermore there are examples too numerous to mention of extremely rich individuals and societies destroying the environment in a disastrous fashion. The populations of the richer countries at present cause - in both absolute and relative terms -the majority of the existing global tlireats, primarily emissions of chemicals, climate change and the thinning out of the ozone layer.

Democracv issues are important in the analysis of connections betvveen the environment and poverty. Even vvhen poorer groups are acutely avvare of the consequences of environmental degradation, they seldom have the possibility to influence political decision makers vvho in many cases accept or even contribute to the environmental destruction undervvay in their countries. The poorer groups most dependent on natural resources are often ethnic minorities or other marginal groups vvith little or no influence on decisions vvhich concern their ovvn existence. This may apply to participation in the political decision making process, but also in otiier decisions vvhich have consequences for the immediate environment of die family or the local society.

Poverty means limited resources to invest in the environment. Measures to protect the environment often require resources in the form of capital and vvork inputs. For a family living in extreme poverty there is often no chance, purely for reasons of survival, of sparing these resources, they represent too large a sacrifice in the daily battie to support the family. There is therefore often a tendency to give lovv priority to environmental protection measures, especially if the positive effects of these measures vvill not appear until long into the future and vvill generally benefit others. Sometimes the combination of lack of personal resources and limited access to credit means that the poorer groups are prevented from protecting the environment, even in those cases vvhere it vvould be of immediate economic benefit for them to do so.

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Poverty can result in limited abilitv to adapt. Poverty is often characterised by a strong reliance on traditional methods, vvhich are often deeply rooted in the culture of poorer groups. In a rapidly changing vvorld vvhere interdependency is increasing, older knovvledge becomes quickly out of date. Vvhen population grovvth and other processes of change eg altered social structure, press forvvard a need to adapt traditional methods, lack of knovvledge concerning alternatives can suddenly become a serious obstacle to ecologically sustainable behaviour patterns. Poverty may also mean litde or no knovvledge of the side-effects of certain modern products such as Chemical pesticides etc on people and the environment.

The importance of the speed of change cannot be emphasised enough concerning environmental effects in general, the exhaustion of the environment by poorer groups and the development of consumer habits. VVhen the speed of many of the change processes is fast, poverty means that adaptation to alterations in the environment become difficult to deal vvith.

The picture is therefore more complicated dian it may appear at first glance. The assumption that environmental problems vvill be solved if poverty is eradicated is not only vvrong, but directly dangerous considering the Limited possibilities that many poorer groups have to break out of the dovvnvvard spiral. It is also an insult to poorer groups of people to describe a development scenario in vvhich prosperity automatically leads to a solution to environmental problems.

Hovvever, economic grovvth is still necessary to assist the poorest groups. The focus is placed on the question: Hovv can this take place vvithin the framevvork of a more equitable society - local and global - and also vvithin the framevvork of vvhat the environment can bear - locally and globally?

The problem is not just generally complex, but also varies considerably from place to place and even from individual to individual.

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THE POOR AND THE RICH

The poor are affected in the South

Environmental degradation affects developing countries in many vvays and it is often the poorest vvho are affected the most as diey are often directly dependent on natural resources for survival and have very fevv resources to counteract the negative effects of environmental degradation. In addition, the poor tend to live in places vvhich are especially exposed to, and sensitive to, environmental degradation. The 20% poorest group in developing countries amounts to 800 million people. It has been estimated that approximately 60% of these, ie around 500 million people, live in areas vvhich are seriously threatened by environmental degradation.

The poor are affected by the North

Lndustrialised countries contribute to the creation of parts of the environmental degradation observable in developing countries. Emissions of green-house effect gases into the atmosphere, dumping of Chemical vvaste in developing countries, export of banned pesticides to developing countries and import of cheap tropical timber are examples of hovv industrialised countries directiy influence developing country environments. Environmental degradation in developing countries is also connected to the international vvorld order: the debt crisis, ravv material price developments, protectionism in industrialised countries etc. An environmental conservation and poverty eradication strategy for developing countries must also include measures in these areas, areas vvhich lie outside conventional development assistance activities.

The poor are also threatened by global environmental problems vvhich have primarily been caused by industrialised countries. Climate and sea level changes - possible results of the greenhouse effect - threaten the poor in developing countries more than those in industrialised nations. The poor in these countries are often vvorst affected as they often live in specially vulnerable areas and have fevv resources to protect themselves from negative external events.

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Actually it is misleading to taik about "global environmental problems" - environmental problems vvhich, to some extent, are shared by ali the eartiYs population. Certain environmental effects can be global in character but environmental problems are definitely not, not from the poor people's perspective. The effects of climate change can be more easily dealt vvith in the Netherlands than in the coastal areas of Bangladesh or by a peasant in Botsvvana. In addition it is difficult to dravv a line betvveen global and other environmental problems.

Even if the causes of the global environmental threats are primarily production and consumption patterns in the industrialised vvorld, vvidespread poverty in connection vvith environmental degradation form the major acute environmental threats to the South.

More rich people in the South

There is a North in the South. Calculations carried out by the World Bank, among others, have shown that there are approximately as many purchasing consumers in developing countries as there are in ali of Western Europe. The middle classes in counties such as Mexico, Malaysia and Chile, for example, utilise considerably more fossil fuel per capita than lovv income groups in Western Europe. The environmental problems caused by developing country middle classes eg air pollution and extensive resource utilisation, primarily threaten the poorest groups in these countries.

The Grovvth Concept

Conventional economists have seldom been able to reflect the enormous complexity represented by nature and ecosystems vvhich is a decisive difficulty vvhen attempting to place a value on the different services provided by nature. For people, especially poor people, often irreplaceable values are in the balance vvhen different ecosystems are exposed to extensive threats or devastation. These values cannot generally be found in the calculations carried out by governments, authorities and companies vvhen decisions are made to clear forests, drain marshes, exploit coastal areas, utilise pesticides in agriculture or emit toxins from industries.

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In the future, development must contain a much stronger qualitative element, a movement avvay from the strict connection to conventional economic grovvth measured in quantitative, monetary terms only.

The common grovvth objective is therefor not as given, and development objectives not as obvious, as vve had thought.

TO CONSIDER - SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

One important implication of the connection betvveen environment and poverty is that investment in the environment is. in many cases. synonymous vvith investment in development for the poorest groups in developing countries. In many places, environmental degradation forms a grovving threat to poor peoples' chances of supporting tliemselves. If this environmental degradation is not stopped, the future vvill bring even more poverty than the present. Protection of the environment is tiierefore no luxury, something that the poor can vvorry about vvhen they live their lives in comfort and safety. In many cases this objective is a fundamental pre-condition for future survival and development.

Hovvever, there can be a contradictorv relationship betvveen short and long term measures in a situation vvhere resources are limited. Shall vve ameliorate famine today or prevent famine tomorrovv? This conflict betvveen short and long term is a part of the development problem picture as such, both for the state and the individual - but this dilemma is specially obvious in connection vvith environmental problems. In the short run, the protection of the environment in certain cases vvill entail considerable costs. Many of the positive consequences of protecting the environment, hovvever, only appear in the long term perspective - vvhen the accumulated effects of polluted emissions cross the threshold of vvhat nature can bear. At this point in time, many of today's decision makers vvill be dead. The incentives for these decision makers - even in a democratic system - to make difficult and, in the long term, necessary decisions today are therefore extremely small.

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It is also important to be avvare that there may be a conflict relationship betvveen the benefit from different individuals' costs for protecting the environment. Poorer individuals and groups are sometimes those vvho are directiy affected by short term environmental protection costs. There are many examples; poor people vvho lose their source of income because the forest they live in has become a nature reserve, shifting cultivators vvho are forced to move to other areas in order to decrease the pressure on the land, slum dvvellers vvho are forced to leave because the area is to be cleared etc. It is extremely important to take into consideration the occurrence of conflicts betvveen the immediate needs of the poorer groups and the long term needs of environmental protection - also a need of poorer groups - vvhen environmental projects are designed.

Eradication of poverty is not a sufficient precondition for the solution of environmental problems. Poverty interacts vvith a number of other factors vvhen causing the environmental destruction novv observable in developing countries. It is poverty in combination vvith these other causes vvhich creates environmental degradation. As long as these causes remain, people - both rich and poor in developing countries - vvill continue to overburden their environment. These causes primarily include:

- lack of ovvnership and user rights to natural resources; - uneven distribution of land ovvnership; - high level of population grovvth; - erroneous economic policies; - market failures; - lack of knovvledge; - absence of democratic Instruments of control.

These factors can, to a greater or lesser degree, be linked to poverty. Hovvever, they are not only related to the poverty problem but also contribute to environmental degradation vvhich threatens everyone.

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A further conclusion is that economic development for the poorest in certain cases is a pre-condition for arresting environmental destruction. The existence of a causal effect chain from poverty to environmental degradation does not, hovvever, mean that developing countries' problems vvith die environment vvould automatically cease if they became as rich as industrialised countries. This has already been mentioned and is a totally futile thought. The real message is that the abolition of extreme poverty through grovvth and/or redistribution of resources is often a pre-condition for stopping environmental degradation. The poor must be provided vvith the resources and knovvledge to be able to protect their environment - for their ovvn sake. Economic grovvth for the majority, hovvever, of the type observable in the Western vvorld is just as much of a threat to the environment in the third vvorld as it is a solution to its problems. Economic grovvth is essential in the third vvorld, but it must happen vvithin the framevvork of sustainable development - development vvithin the framevvork of the sustainability of ecosystems.

Success in the struggle against global environmental threats requires that political, economic and social systems are designed in such a vvay that the social preconditions of man and vvomankind are in balance vvith sustainable development. This is not possible in a vvorld characterised by deep economic and social injustices, in vvhich one hundred million people live in deepest poverty. This vievv is expressed in the fifth principle of the Rio Declaration vvhich states that" In order to decrease the differences in living standards and to better fulfil the needs of the majority of the population of the vvorld, ali states and peoples must co-operate in the essential task of eradicating poverty vvhich is a prerequisite for sustainable development." A fair and reasonable resource distribution policy is therefore necessary at both national and international levels.

Market forces do not pay sufficient attention either to environmental degradation or to the conditions of the poor. The role of both the state and the market must therefore be considered vvhen environmental policies are designed and poverty eradication measures implemented. Ecological economic instruments of measurement and steering, social analyses in relationship to environmental problems and institutional development in the environmental area are becoming increasingly important, if not vital, for the solution of environment-related poverty problems.

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HOW TO HANDLE THESE PROBLEMS

Three categories

From a practical point of vievv, activities aimed at utilising the connection environment/development for both the improvement of human vvelfare and environmental conditions can be divided into three different categories:

- Activities aimed at the development of resources. The goal is to improve the material situation and production methods of the poorest groups and there by their opportunities to "invest" in the future - something vvhich enables the poorest groups to desist from consuming their natural capital.

- Activities aimed at human development, eg health, nutrition and education, vvhich decrease population grovvth, improve utilisation of resources and enable rational choices concerning its possibilities.

- Activities aimed at political development to ensure that support reaches the correct target groups thereby providing a voice and influence for the poor and vvhich creates the right incentives in economic policies for the promotion of environmentally sound and sustainable development.

S t r a t e g y

A strategy for the fight against poverty vvhich also fulfils obiectives concerning sustainable management of the environment. should contain the follovving elements:

- Effective utilisation of vvork force, vvhich is the primary asset of the poor.

- Ovvnership of physical assets, natural resources and other capital by eg the regulation of land ovvnership rights.

- Increase of yields of the different types of capital ovvned by the poorer groups eg by supplying infrastructure such as roads and general Communications, attainable credit conditions and technology.

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- Development of human capital tlirough access to improved health care, nutrition and education.

- Improved living conditions eg tlirough the supply of clean vvater and sanitary facilities.

- Increased environmental knovvledge and developed environmental institutions.

Critical areas of activity

According to the governmental study "Sustainable Development", the follovving areas of activity are specially critical in assistance aimed at the eradication of poverty through sustainable development:

* Food and vvater supply/natural resource base

- vvater resources/utilisation - sustainable agriculture - marine environment/coastal areas - bio-diversity - forests

* Urban environmental problems

- vvaste/sevvage - transport

* Capacity development

- institutional development - education, training - environmental economics -NGOs

* energy systems * population development

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Two general areas, vvhich from the perspective of sustainable development - both being social aspects vvhich consider demands for sustainable utilisation of natural resources - appear to be fundamental to the survival of poorer groups and their chances of improved living conditions. The first is vvater and food supply vvhich is regulated by the natural resource base. The other is the environmental problems connected to rapid urbanisation. especially the vvaste/sevvage/pollution problems. In addition, development assistance to capacitv development. competence development and institutional development in the environmental area take a prominent place.

Activities must be based on local participation, influence and "ovvnership" concerning measures vvithin the framevvork of democratic political svstems at both local and central levels. The development of such systems must be promoted. Finally population development must be paid special attention both as far as the provision of food and vvater is concerned and for improvement of sexual and reproductive health, including opportunities to utilise family planning.

It is important to increase avvareness of the fact that the connections betvveen the environment and poverty vary according to environmental problem, geographical area, social group and for vvomen and men vvitiiin these social groups. For this reason a general analysis must alvvavs be complemented bv analvses at country and local levels before specific activities aimed at the solution of environmental and poverty-related problems are designed. This may be carried out, inter alia, vvithin the framevvork of the environmental profiles produced by SIDA for the Swedish Programme Countries. The necessity of interest group analyses must also be emphasised in relationship to the environment problem picture - women are, for example, often primary actors in these contexts.

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LITERATURE

Abiri, Elisabeth (ed.) : Miljoner pä flykt, World House Papers, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg 1992.

UN: UNCED - United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, Agenda 21, Department of the Environment and Natural Resources, Stockholm 1993.

Hardoy, J. E., Mitlin, D., Satterthwaite, D.: Environmental Problems in Third World Cities, Earthscan Publications Ltd, London 1992.

Harrison, Paul: The Third Revolution, Penguin Books, London , 1993.

Myers, Norman: Ultimate Security - The Environmental Basis of Political Stability, W.W. Norton & Company, London 1993.

Myers, Norman: Environmental Refugees (draft), Climate Institute, Washington, 1995.

Persson, S., Segnestam, M., Wijkman, A.: Hällbart biständ - Det Svenska biständet efter UNCED, Rapport frän arbetsgruppen för hällbart biständ, Stockholm, Ds 1994:132.

SIDA: Miljö och Fattigdom - Handlingslinjer för SIDA's biständ, SIDA, Stockholm, 1991.

SIDA: Poverty, Environment and Development - Proposals for Action, Stockholm, 1991.

SIDA: Workshop on Gender and Water Resources Management. Lessons learned and Strategies for the Future. Gender and Water Resources Management, report from a seminar held in Stockholm 1-3 December 1993.

WHO: Report of the Commission on Health and Environment - Our Planet, Our Health, WHO, Geneva, 1992.

The World Bank: World Development Report 1992 - Development and the Environment, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.

The World Bank: Implementing the World Bank's Strategy to Reduce Poverty - Progress and Challenges, Washington D.C., 1993.

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